“Can you do this?” Rowe demanded. I had fought in this battle and killed dozens of my own people that were trying to kill me. The queen of the naturi was out for blood, and she was going to give her two sisters and her former consort no quarter. I should have had the same mind-set, and yet I was hesitating.
“I will try,” I admitted.
“ ‘Try’ is going to get me killed,” he snapped. “You get an open shot at her, you take it. Otherwise you, Cynnia, and I are all dead.”
I nodded and squared my shoulders as I stood facing him. He was right, and deep down I knew it. This was no time for an emotional attachment to someone who had never cared for me or the people she was chosen to protect. It was time for Aurora to be destroyed.
Unfortunately, she was already one step ahead of us. Cynnia’s terrified scream shattered the night, sending a chill down my spine. Aurora was using her ability of telekinesis to pull Cynnia toward her through the air. Rowe and I turned at the same time to see Shelly desperately holding onto Cynnia’s hands, trying to pull her back down to the earth. Rowe and I sprang forward, reaching for Cynnia, but the naturi slipped through Shelly’s hands, sending the witch sprawling forward in the deep mud.
A scream of rage rose in my throat as I watched Cynnia fly straight and true through the air toward our sister. Aurora returned to the earth herself and tightly grasped a hunk of Cynnia’s hair, pushing her down on her knees while laughing manically. She knew that she finally had the upper hand.
With sword drawn, I climbed the hill, rushing through the crowd of naturi that surrounded Aurora. My feet slipped in the wet grass and mud, but my legs continued to churn, forcing me forward. I chopped through one naturi after another in a blind fury, no longer aware of what I was doing. It wasn’t about the death and destruction that seemed to eat at my soul. It was about saving Cynnia.
At the same time, Rowe took to the air, flying over the horde that stood between me and Aurora, hoping to engage the queen before I could reach her. I not only needed to save Cynnia, but had to help Rowe counter Aurora, who was capable of anything, and might well knife Rowe in the back while he tried to save the sister of his former wife-queen.
“Release her, Aurora!” he shouted just before touching down on the hill she was claiming as her own territory.
“Not until she takes her last breath,” Aurora said with a wild laugh.
As I cleared my final combatant, I saw Aurora raise her free hand toward Rowe. He flapped his wings once, trying to pull back and away from the blast about to hit him. I dropped my sword and raised both my hands to summon all the powers of the earth I could feel just beneath my feet. As the flames poured from Aurora’s fingertips, a protective sphere surrounded Rowe, blocking the flames before they could touch him.
Aurora screamed in frustration and tried again, but he remained untouched. Through the flames that lit up the night sky, I could hear Rowe’s deep laughter, which only enraged Aurora more. She jerked on Cynnia’s hair, tightening her grip as she flung out her free hand, sending a barrage of fireballs through the night, just hoping to hit something, but they dissipated almost as quickly as they formed.
“It’s over, Aurora,” I called to her, my hands still raised as I awaited the next attack. I knew my sister and what she was capable of better than anyone else. Her powers were limited to only the use of fire and telekinesis, which gave her the illusion of flight without wings. Light clan queens of the past were able to summon up the sun, but Aurora had spent too many centuries relying on me as her muscle, and I had spent many years studying the magical arts of our people. But I’d never imagined I would be using my skills against my sister.
“Traitor!” she screamed in a wavering voice. “I am your queen! You must obey me!”
“You abandoned me when I was born. You’re nothing to me,” I replied. “Cynnia and Rowe are the only ones who believe in me now.”
“Then I’ll take them both from you!” she snarled. From her waistband, Aurora pulled a long jagged blade and held it over Cynnia.
“No!” I screamed, charging the remaining distance up the hill. My heart felt like it had stopped in my chest, and time seemed to slow down to a crawl as I watched Aurora lower the blade toward Cynnia’s chest. The knife would rip through her and tear apart her heart. There would be no chance of healing her, no possibility of survival after such a wound.
Then Rowe pulled his wings tight against his body in order to crash into Aurora. Cynnia went flying free as Aurora lost her grip on her hair. She rolled away, pale and shaking. But I saw no fresh blood on her. She had escaped harm for now.
Rowe, however, was wobbly as he returned to his feet, backpedaling away from Aurora with one hand pressed to his throat. And yet, he still managed to pull his sword from his sheath and stand ready to engage her. I reached him in time to see blood running between his fingers from a wound in his throat. He was struggling to breathe as his eye narrowed on Aurora. Clearly, he intended to finally end this war, even if it meant dying in the process.
“Get Cynnia to safety,” he said in a low, gurgling voice.
“I’m not leaving you behind. We’re going to finish this.”
“Leave,” he whispered before lunging forward with his sword. At the same time, two more naturi that had mounted the hill from the other side tried to attack Rowe as he engaged the knife-wielding Aurora. I jumped to his defense, pushing them back and eventually removing their heads.
When I turned back, Rowe and Aurora were locked together, bodies inches apart as their blades pressed together. One slip and someone was going to lose a head. There wasn’t time to try to get between them or to slip around Aurora to aid Rowe, who was weak from his loss of blood. A lump grew in my throat, and I mentally promised myself that I would fix everything once it was all over. That thin promise was the only thing that made my feet take those final steps toward Rowe and Aurora.
Pulling back my blade, I plunged it through Rowe’s back and through Aurora’s chest. Both of them gasped in unison and went stiff as a board. I grasped the hilt with both hands and jerked it out of their bodies. Aurora fell forward, but I put my shoulder into Rowe’s back to keep him from falling backward.
“Take her!” I shouted, holding him up as blood gushed out of his back and front from the massive wound I had made. With shaking arms, I watched as Rowe raised his sword and brought it down, removing Aurora’s head in a long fluid motion. She fell dead, her white robes stained red from her blood and black from the mud.
There was no time to mourn the death of my older sister, which I would have done no matter how much she hated me. I needed to do what I could to save Rowe’s life while his body still had the strength to hold onto his soul. Carefully, I laid him down on the ground. His eye was closed and his breathing labored.
“Cynnia, come over here and help me!” I screamed as I knelt in the sinking mud.
My sister instantly crawled over to Rowe’s limp body and stared down at him in horror.
“I told you to go for an open shot,” Rowe mocked as bubbles of blood passed over his lips.
“I got tired of waiting for you to move,” I said, grabbing Cynnia’s hands and pressing them to the large cut along his neck. “Keep your hands there and hold tight to slow the bleeding,” I told her. “I need you to do what I do to save him.”
“What are you going to do?” Cynnia asked.
“Ask for the Great Mother’s help.”
“I think she gave up on me a long time ago,” Rowe murmured, his voice growing weaker. My heart thudded in my chest and I could feel tears gathering in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I was not going to let him die.
Closing my eyes, I touched Cynnia’s mind so she could both hear and feel exactly what I was doing. I reached deep into the powerful flows of the earth and let my soul sink down into the very essence of the earth until I felt a larger consciousness. The Great Mother was watching everything, listening to the battle that was taking place on her soul. She was aware of the abuses of powe
r. She was aware of everything at once.
Pressing my hands on the wound in Rowe’s chest, I pushed his soul down into the earth as well, so it brushed against this deeper consciousness. I waited, holding my breath, praying this would work. I had healed my own deeper, life-threatening wounds this way, but then I’d always had a deep connection to the Great Mother. She spoke to me when my mind was quiet and warned me of many things. I only prayed now that she would see the same goodness that I felt in Rowe and heal him.
After a couple of seconds, deep within the earth, I felt Cynnia’s confused and awe-filled presence. A plea for Rowe’s life had formed in her brain as she begged the Great Mother to be merciful to this poor creature after all his centuries of service.
Blood continued to pour forth and I felt my grasp on Rowe’s soul starting to slip. I was losing him. Gritting my teeth, I tightened my grip and called forth even more energy. The tree burned on my back and down my arms. I could feel it growing, stretching down my arms and up my throat to the point where I thought it would soon strangle me. The energy of the earth was flowing into me, and finally into Rowe. The wounds slowly closed beneath Cynnia’s and my hands, and I could feel wounded organs mending with amazing speed and precision.
Rowe coughed and groaned, drawing in a ragged breath and then another before placing one of his hands over mine. I opened my eyes and looked down to find him smirking up at me. He was covered in his own blood and looking extremely pale, but I knew he would live.
“I’m impressed,” he said in a low rough voice. “You commanded the earth to give me a second chance.”
“You never give commands to the Great Mother,” I said, squeezing his hand in mine.
“No, Nyx,” Cynnia countered. I looked up to find a look of horror written across her mud- and blood-smeared face. “I heard you. You weren’t asking for help. You were demanding it, and she listened to you. I have no right to claim to be queen of our people. You’re the one chosen by the Great Mother to be the true source of our power.”
“And I decline,” I simply said with a soft smile.
Cynnia shook her head and backed away a few inches. “But I didn’t even know you could do such a thing. I’ve never touched the Great Mother in such a way.”
“I guess you’ll have to prove to be smarter than Aurora and listen to your sister when she offers you advice,” Rowe said. The one-eyed naturi took a deep breath before pushing into an upright position. I placed a hand and knee gently at his back to help hold him upright as he seemed to waver. “The naturi that fought against Aurora were following you, not me or Nyx. They were following you and your vision. Now is not the time to question it. It’s time to lead.”
“I can’t do this alone. Aurora—” Cynnia began, but I held up my hand and halted her words.
“Aurora chose to be alone. You never will be.”
With a nod, Cynnia pushed to her feet and walked over to the edge of the hill to look at the naturi gathered below, who were still fighting. She bent down, picked up Aurora’s severed head by the hair and held it high in the air. The fighting instantly stopped and an eerie silence fell over the park as everyone waited for her to speak.
“Aurora is dead. I, Cynnia, am your new queen. The war is over.”
I looked over at Rowe, to find him watching me with an odd look on his face.
“You stabbed me in the back,” he whispered.
“If you were in the same position, you would have done the same thing,” I said, rubbing my thumb across his scarred cheek.
“But I wouldn’t have been able to save you.”
“You would have tried, and that would have been enough.”
“I can feel a part of your soul attached to my own now.”
A half smile tweaked one corner of my mouth. “It looks like you’re stuck with me then.”
Rowe matched my smile and leaned in closer, letting his lips brush against mine. “I’ve heard worse news today.” My laugh was smothered by his lips as he kissed me in the mud and rain and blood.
Thirty-five
The Daylight Coalition was waiting for us as the nightwalkers turned their attention from the warring naturi to the scattering of humans positioned behind a grove of trees with guns. It was too late to try to cloak ourselves from view, as they had already seen us. However, we still had a few other tricks up our sleeves. On a silent count of three, we all ran at the coalition members in a blur of movement in the darkness. Gunfire exploded in the night as they desperately tried to hit us, but we easily dodged the bullets and fell onto our targets. Each man in the coalition force was paired up, in the hope that they would be better protected.
Sliding around one particularly massive live oak tree, I swung my blade so it sliced through the throat of one man before ripping a gun out of the hands of his partner. I tossed the weapon aside like a broken toy and sank my fangs into the jugular of my enemy. He squirmed beneath me, desperate to be free as I drained him of his life. I drank deeply, not bothering to push away his conscious thought. He wanted to fight nightwalkers. Well, then I was going to give him a good taste of what it meant to go up against a nightwalker and lose.
In the middle of my feast, I didn’t notice that he had palmed a large knife, but I felt it the moment he shoved it into the middle of my back. I released him, pushing him violently away as I reached around to pull the knife free. Quivering, he backed against the tree he’d been hiding behind and searched himself with trembling hands for another weapon. Blood continued to pour from his neck where I had bitten him. I sighed with relief when the weapon was finally free of my back. With a glow in my eyes, I surged forward, plunged his knife into his stomach and pulled upward, gutting him. He screamed once before passing out from the pain. It would be only seconds before he finally bled to death.
Standing with my hands on my hips, I turned to see my companions finishing up the last of the Daylight Coalition as if they were taking out a bit of trash to the waste bin. It had been a minor scrap compared to the fight with the naturi, which now appeared to be over. The sounds of battle no longer reached me, and on the hill I could see Cynnia standing with her sister’s head dangling from one bloody hand. A new reign had started.
For a breath, relief crept through my frame. Danaus stood at the edge of the woods with weapons drawn, waiting for me to join him. A number of nightwalkers were killed during the night, but many of my companions had survived. I could even sense a few lycanthropes out there among the naturi. We had done the impossible by taking on Aurora’s army, and not only survived the encounter, but triumphed.
My relief instantly disappeared when floodlights snapped on, blanketing the park with harsh white light from both sides. I stepped to the edge of the woods, shielding my eyes as best as I could to take a closer look at what surrounded us. My stomach twisted and a trembling started in my fingers as I saw not only signs of the Savannah police, but the National Guard as well. While we were engrossed in the battle with the naturi and the Daylight Coalition, the police had moved in to keep us trapped within the park.
To make matters worse, they were accompanied by the local TV channels as well as the press. Cameras were rolling, flashbulbs popping, and commentators were out, trying to make some sense of the carnage before them. No one had tried to stop us, because for the first few minutes no one understood what they were seeing. Humanlike creatures were flying through the air, balls of fire were spontaneously appearing and disappearing, and people were changing into animal form. Our world had been spread out for display at its worst possible moment, and now there was no taking it back. The Great Awakening was here.
I knew that everything as we knew it would be different from that moment on. Hiding would be more than a natural way of life to make feeding and sleeping easier, it would be an absolute necessity as humans who had never taken up arms before suddenly hunted creatures they didn’t understand and feared. Governments would quickly step in to calm the masses as they attempted to reestablish some type of order, which would mean, so far
as they saw it, finding a way to rule over creatures that defied so many of their rules. They would demand blood samples and possible tagging so they knew where all the nightwalkers, lycanthropes, and other creatures were hiding each day. They would do it all in the name of protecting not only humans but also the supernatural world, but in the end, I knew if we were not extremely careful, the supernatural world was going to become the monster under the bed that had to be hunted.
We would have to proceed slowly, find ways to contact world leaders and reassure them—if not blackmail them—into believing that our peoples were not a threat to the human race. With the presence of the Daylight Coalition, no transition would be easy. Nightwalkers and lycanthropes were undoubtedly exposed, though the naturi might be able to sneak off into hiding for a while. I wondered if the witches and warlocks would stand with us and accept exposure, or wait in hiding for the worst of the chaos to blow over.
As the rain started to abate, I noticed a dark figure flying across the night sky toward me. I barely restrained the urge to pull a knife when I realized it was Rowe. The naturi landed lightly a few feet in front of me. His clothes were soaked in what appeared to be his own blood, and his neck had a fresh cut that had just crusted over with dried blood. Apparently, the battle against Aurora had been tough.
“The humans are here,” he needlessly announced. They were a little hard to miss on either side of us, with their bright lights and weapons. “Do we fight?”
“And make the situation even worse?” I cried, looking at him as if he had lost his mind. But that was Rowe, always out for a little—or a lot—of human blood. I could only hope that Nyx could change that.
“It’s too late. We’re exposed to the world.”
Rowe shrugged one shoulder, wincing at the motion as wounds still tried to mend. “I guess it was only a matter of time before they found out.”
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